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• The patrol says Charles Gerlach drove his car into oncoming traffic while attempting to make a turn.
• Another passenger in the car suffered life-threatening injuries, and the two people in the van suffered serious injuries.
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• BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) -- A 25-year-old Idaho State University student is the new Miss Indian Nations.
• Alexandria Alvarez, of Fort Hall, Idaho, was crowned over the weekend during the United Tribes International Powwow, which draws thousands of people each year to the North Dakota capital of Bismarck.
• The Miss Indian Nations scholarship pageant is open to all Native American women who are at least one-fourth Indian and are between the ages of 18 and 26. The winner serves as an ambassador for all Indian nations, and also as an official representative of United Tribes Technical College, which sponsors the powwow.
• Alvarez is a member of the Shoshone-Bannock tribe and a journalist with the

Sho-Ban News. She holds bachelor's degrees in liberal arts and American Indian studies from Haskell Indian Nations University in Kansas and hopes to eventually attend law school.
• Alvarez succeeds Shannon Hooper of Fallon, Nev., a member of the Shoshone-Paiute tribe, and becomes the 21st Miss Indian Nations. She said that during her yearlong reign she plans to be an ambassador of tribal culture around the country and address what she sees as "tremendous misconceptions" about American Indians.
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• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is challenging petitions that seek a public vote on the zoning of land to accommodate a new supercenter in Sioux Falls.
• Company officials believes as many as one-third of the signatures on the petitions are invalid, a claim the opposition group Save Our Neighborhood disputes.
• "It is clear that the petitioners fell short of the minimum number of valid signatures required," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Delia Garcia said in a statement. "As we continue to work on behalf of our thousands of Sioux Falls customers to real

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